The Once and Future Thing Part Two: Time, Warped
"The Once and Future Thing" is the thirteenth episode of . It first aired on January 29th, 2005. Part Two: Time Warped The Jokerz have been "upgraded" with cybernetic weapons that are advanced even for that time, and the combined Leaguers have no choice but to retreat. They return to an abandoned warehouse, which serves as a sort of impromptu Batcave, to meet the final League member: the aged Bruce Wayne. Warhawk introduces himself as Rex Stewart. Lantern asks who his mother was; he replies, Hawkgirl. They explain that Clinton has decided to emulate Manning, and made himself a warlord in his own time, now calling himself "Lord Chronos". In his previous time travels, he had been careful about not disrupting history. Now he has abandoned that restraint, poaching technology from the future and historical monuments from the past, all to transform Gotham into his personal kingdom. The Watchtower, and most of the Justice League, including Lantern and Shayera, was destroyed years ago in an attack by the enhanced Jokerz. As a result of Chronos's recklessness, serious disruptions in the space-time continuum have begun. To Batman’s horror, Diana fades away in mid-sentence; now she never left Themyscira – or worse, was never even born. There are even signs that the universe itself is moving towards entropy. The combined League captures Ghoul and interrogates him. He says Chronos moves around each night, never staying in the same place – but he knows where his wife sleeps. In the middle of their search, John Stewart phases out and is replaced by Hal Jordan, who says calmly, "I’m up to speed. Carry on." A short while later, Hal fades away and John comes back. The League confronts Enid, staying in a pyramid (poached either from ancient Egypt or Las Vegas). She is as contemptuous of her husband as before, though now she is also afraid of him. She says that his moving around is a myth, he always stays in the same place. Ironically, that place is the Elkhorn town jail, which he has poached and planted in the middle of the Coliseum – apparently, it’s the place where he feels safest. Chronos wakes and summons the Jokerz; in the ensuing battle, Static is sucked into a suddenly-appearing time portal, and Terry is killed by Dee Dee. As the universe itself starts to collapse, Chronos disappears into another time portal. Lantern and Batman follow, and see he is now heading to the Beginning of Time, which will enable him to re-write the history of the entire universe. As they hurtle towards the source, they catch up with Chronos and Batman plugs in a program he’s written to “de-bug” his time machine and its effects. They are still heading towards the source… when Batman and Lantern open their eyes and find themselves in the Watchtower cafeteria. Wonder Woman joins them, having no memory of what they’ve done. Lantern and Batman are the only ones who remember what happened. Lantern sees Shayera, and remembers what Warhawk said about his parentage. Lantern asks, what about Chronos. Batman, smiling, says he re-programmed the belt to ensure that Chronos would never come to exist… In the future, Enid delivers the same scolding she did before; as before, David angrily activates his belt to get away from her – and jumps back in time to a few seconds ago, at the beginning of Enid’s scolding, over and over again. Cast Other characters that appear in this episode *Vibe *Dr. Light *Mr. Terrific *Booster Gold *Stargirl *Gypsy *Supergirl *Shayera Hol Title The title is a pun on "The Once and Future King" by T.H. White. Continuity * The Jokerz who appear in this episode first appeared in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. Early in that movie, Bonk is killed by The Joker as an example to the others. However, this is one of many things that could have been changed by Chronos in his time-travels. *This is Hal Jordan's only appearance in the DC Animated Universe. However, the animated version of Kyle Rayner that appeared in the episode "In Brightest Day..." of Superman: The Animated Series was modified to be similar to Jordan in several respects. Cultural References * Both episodes are thematically very similar to "The Savage Time", the finale of , Season One. In that episode, the League travels back in time to World War II, and finds history altered because of technology contributed from the future, and also finds itself assisted by a a host of DC Comics heroes created for that era. * Bonk's chief weapon is a double-bladed lightsaber identical to the one carried by Darth Maul in Star Wars: Episode I. * The conclusion of this episode is similar to the original Star Trek episode “I, Mudd” when scoundrel Harry Mudd is punished by being surrounded by 500 android copies of his nagging wife. *It is also similar to All in the Timing, a collection of one-act plays by David Ives, several of which are based on the humorous premise of time being re-wound over and over again by only a few seconds or minutes. Quotes Notes * This story has a strong similarity to the 1994 DC Comics miniseres called "Zero Hour." There are also slight similarities to the 1986 maxieseries "Crisis On Infinite Earths." Category:JLU episodes Category:Crossover episodes